House Tells Senate To Fix Tax Bill's Revenue Gap

July 27, 1986|By United Press International

WASHINGTON — House tax reform negotiators gave their Senate counterparts an ultimatum Saturday that they must find a way to pay for a shortfall of more than $21 billion in their bill before there can be any major compromises.

Meeting in a rare weekend session, the House members told the senators in a closed meeting of the conference that before any substantial steps could be taken on writing a final tax reform bill, it was the senators' responsibility to change their version so that it would not lose money.

''We were making it clear that the ball is in the Senate's court in terms of making up the shortfall,'' said Rep. Donald Pease, D-Ohio, a negotiator on the panel that is trying to reconcile differences between the House and Senate tax reform bills.

Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, D-Ill., leader of the House forces, used the occasion to push senators to accept some of the tough business tax provisions included in the House bill, arguing that was the logical way to find the extra money without tampering with the low tax rates in their measure.

Friday, the House members tentatively agreed that as a starting point for writing a compromise bill, they would try not to exceed the maximum 27 percent individual tax rate.

The Senate has boasted that its tax rates -- which are much lower than those in the House bill -- are the most attractive part of its package and cannot be changed.

However, the Senate delegation last week was faced with an unexpected problem when new estimates showed that instead of being ''revenue neutral,'' its bill would worsen the deficit by $21.2 billion in the next five years.